Newsbox Fireworks Demo Night

UKFR editor Pyro Pete reports back from Newsbox’s first ever public fireworks demo where he saw their latest consumer gear and a stunning fireworks finale.

Newsbox Fireworks are a long-term sponsor of UKFR having built up a reputation for picking out the best fireworks from various brands and then selling them at prices you can’t refuse (always a winning combination!).

At the end of September 2012 they held their first public demo night. UKFR regulars will know that Newsbox have held demo or review evenings before but these have usually been smaller or private gatherings intended to test or film stock. This year Raj, the owner of Newsbox, decided to be brave and take this one step further by throwing open the doors to the public and all his customers.

The venue certainly had a nod of approval from UKFR’s resident pyromaniacs: The Woodman Pub, previous home to many member events including the St. George competitions and, perhaps most importantly, the resting grounds of the late landlord’s ashes. I am sure Peter Benefield was looking down with a smile, certainly when some of the loudest consumer fireworks I’ve heard for many a year started ripping open the Essex skies!

One of over 80 consumer fireworks being fired.

There were over 80 items test fired in total on what turned into a superb – if slightly cold – night for fireworks. These covered a diverse range of brands including the Epic Fireworks stable, Kimbolton, Cube, Bright Star, Fireworks International, Planet, Absolute, Brothers and Tai Pan. Newsbox stock both 1.3G and 1.4G fireworks, the former being more the “old school” items with higher flash content and therefore bigger and louder breaks. This showed on a number of items with massive bangs that took me right back to the golden age of fireworks in the mid-nineties when men were men and your neighbours would almost certainly complain.

During the few times I managed to look around from my cameras I could see a brilliant turnout crowd-wise for Newsbox’s first demo so this event will surely go from strength to strength if it’s a regular fixture. As always, the Woodman proved to be a super venue for fireworks with a large beer garden plus food and drink.

Newsbox Fireworks Finale

The finale however was something else! A firing in the style of “ten of these and ten of those together” is always going to look good despite being done with only consumer fireworks, but when a lot of the items are 1.3G cakes from Epic Fireworks you know it will get insane. You can watch the finale in the video below – do view it on YouTube in 720p or 1080p because the blocky lower resolutions don’t do it justice.

All in all a very enjoyable night with some truly high quality, high performing and good value pyro on show.

Newsbox Fireworks – Photos

Here are a few images from the night. Not too many since I had to swipe the card out of the camera to feed the video DSLR which was munching through its own card at an alarming rate:

Newsbox Fireworks – Further information

For further discussion about the night, including other members’ favourite items and a list of the finale fireworks, see this thread in our Fireworks Forum: Newsbox Fireworks Demo Discussion.

Looking for video clips of the items fired? I was the official Newsbox cameraman on the night and the video will be uploaded shortly. You’ll be able to see these in the Fireworks Forum, look in the Firework Reviews sub-section. Either have a look at the forum’s What’s New page to see the uploads as they progress this week, or search for the keyword “newsbox” in the reviews forum, as I’ll note each one as being from the Newsbox demo night. Out of 86 items I have video of over 60 to upload.

The firers and everyone else who helped out did a fantastic job which Raj appreciates.

Raj would like to thank everyone who helped him on the day including the firers who gave their time both setting up and firing.